E-Commerce Shows Big Wins in 2012

2012 is over, and stores have been working feverishly on final sales numbers for the year. With the economy still struggling, it has hit retailers hard the last few years, and they are hoping to turn that around. One of their marketing strategies was putting more focus into online sales.

Did it work? For some it was a smashing success. Macy’s online sales were up 41% in 2012, and made up the majority of the department stores growth in the past year. Nordstrom’s online push resulted in 28% of their sales growth in 2012, which resulted in a 37% growth in online sales. But these aren’t the only two that showed big wins in the e-commerce arena. Kohl’s online sales were up 42% in 2012, and while a quarter of that came at the expense of their retail stores, it is still a big win.

Best Buy also took off the gloves, and decided to get serious about online sales. They have been having a big problem of “show rooming”, which simply stated is when people look at a product and test it in Best Buy’s retail stores, then buying it cheaper online. To combat this, Best Buy is now price matching many popular online stores. Has this strategy worked? It appears it has. They started testing the project around Black Friday, during the start of the holiday shopping season of last year. They have seen 11% year over year growth rate in their online sales. With those numbers, they decided to push the project full steam ahead, and made the policy a permanent part of their online marketing strategy.

What do I think of all this? Well, working here at FatWallet for the past 10 years has taught me a lot. I have seen the online e-commerce revolution first hand. It was once the “last kid picked in gym class” of retail marketing at under 1% of all retail sales, it is now growing into a force to be reckoned with making up 7% of retail sales, and is estimated to jump to 8% in 2013. It is getting to the point that retailers can no longer ignore the online community and as a person who shops online more than in store, I personally welcome merchants fighting as much for my business online as they do in store.

To show our support for these e-commerce stores, we have rounded up current and past deals, that show just how hard they are trying to get your online shopping business!

About Bryan Marsden

Bryan, or MarsBars as everyone calls him in the forums, has been with Fatwallet for-practically-ever. His database-like brain manages to contain oodles of random factoids, obscure references, and up-to-the-minute updates on anything financial or commerce related. He's done practically every job at Fatwallet, but now holds a seat in the SEO arena where he applies his mega-brain power writing and coordinating content. He won a Creative Writing award in Third Grade - an accomplishment he still brags about today.Google+